As people age the facial muscles become less taut and sag. This causes the skin of the face to sag and give the appearance of facial aging. People with sagging facial muscles often maintain their jaws in an over-closed condition instead of in a normal rest posture. The normal rest posture is the jaw position in space, with the jaws relaxed and the teeth spaced apart so that the occlusal surfaces of the upper and lower teeth are not engaged. When the jaw is kept more tightly closed than when in the normal rest posture there is little vertical separation between the upper and lower teeth. In this over-closed condition the bones do not get stimulated because there are facial muscles that are not at their peak level of activity.
Various dental appliances that do not require surgical implantation exist that aim to reduce the appearance of aging in the face, mouth and neck areas. One such appliance, or prosthesis, believed to be known as the Angelift, is described in U.S. pre-grant publications, 2005/0175963, published Aug. 11, 2005 and 2006/0172262 published Aug. 3, 2006. This appliance is formed to fit around the upper or lower gum. The appliance has an upper and lower support in the anterior vestibule between the alveolar mucosa and the lip. The supports are intended to contact and push the facial skin around the mouth and jaw outward to reduce the appearance of wrinkles or aging lines. The thickness of the appliance can be varied to achieve a desired facial appearance. The appliance is attached to the teeth by wires.
Another such appliance is known as the Oralift, which appears to be the subject of U.S. Pat. No. 7,416,516. This is an appliance for reducing facial aging which is formed of an elastomeric material that can be fitted to the teeth so as to maintain a predetermined vertical separation of the jaws to reestablish the jaw rest posture at various vertical heights. When the jaws are in the resting posture there is a freeway space between the teeth. The freeway space is defined as the inter-occlusal distance or separation between the occlusal surfaces of the teeth when the mandible is in its physiologic rest position. When the jaws are relaxed in a normal rest posture, the freeway space is usually from about 2.5-3 mm. When the jaws are more tightly clenched, the freeway space is less.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,416,516 discloses an appliance that is to make the resting posture of the jaws to be at least 3 mm greater than normal. If the freeway space with the jaws relaxed in its rest position is from about 2.5-3.0 mm, the appliance of the patent would keep the teeth further separated and make the freeway space about 6 mm. In actual use of the Oralift appliance, and as disclosed in the patent, the additional separation from the normal jaw relaxed rest position is reported to be as much as 20 mm, which would make the freeway space even greater. The appliance of this patent does not have any way to push out selected areas of the face, particularly at the nasolabial folds of the face. The Oralift appliance is one that is often fitted by a dentist with special training and a technician is required to fabricate it.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,580,980 a denture is disclosed for reducing the cosmetic effect of facial age lines. The denture, shown for the upper set of teeth, includes protuberances extending from what corresponds to the denture gum area to engage the inside of the cheek to stretch the overlying skin so as to urge age lines into a more youthful configuration. This appliance is useful only for people without normal teeth and requires special fitting.
Accordingly, it is desired to provide a dental appliance that does not have to be surgically implanted and can achieve the desired effect of reducing the appearance of aging in the face and that can be easily fitted to a user, even by the user himself.